TromboneChat

This is a better write up of the study:

https://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/news/ear-plugs-essential-orchestral-musicians-study-finds/

My problem with it is that they seemed to make some assumptions that weren't warranted.

The fact that these levels are produced by the players’ own instruments alone means the hazards are present regardless of screens or positioning, rendering earplugs the most effective option for hearing protection.

They seemed to ignore the fact that brass instruments are highly directional. We all know that it's much louder in front of the bell than behind the mouthpiece. The study doesn't seem to take that into account at all.

Another problem:

“A hypothetical scenario with surround screens shows that, even when shielding all direct sound from others, sound exposure is reduced moderately with the largest effect on players in loud sections."

O.K., but the smart way to do it is to have screens behind players to protect them, not putting screens around the loud instruments. For example, instead of putting a screen in front of the trumpet, you put a screen behind the oboe player, or whoever is affected by the sound coming from the trumpet. The study doesn't seem to have modeled this at all. I much prefer having a sound shield behind me over having to wear earplugs. With earplugs, I'm not really hearing my own sounds, I'm just hearing the vibration of the sound wave inside my head, and it's impossible to really play musically that way.

The video is very interesting. I was surprised to see that the flutes are just as loud as the trombones, although we somehow always seem to get the blame for being the loudest. Flute is omnidirectional, so it's interesting to note that they may be responsible for their own hearing loss. High frequencies are more damaging, so I would suspect that the cymbal is the most dangerous instrument, both for the player and for the people around him.

Picc is loudest, by far!

Another thing that is always left out is that WITHOUT earplugs there's a good amount of cancellation due to the balance of sound from inside your head to your own sound coming back from outside.

WITH earplugs you're getting the full force from inside, with no cancellation.  You have protection from other instruments but your own sound is considerably MORE damaging. 

I'm guessing that would be true for brass and reeds, but maybe not flute or any other instruments.

Hmm. 

That would make something like Silent Brass potentially damaging too.

Certainly we hear internal sound, do we know how harmful it might be? 

I've often wondered about "cancellation" but it's unlikely that could work for all frequencies.


A Doctor on Quora has a somewhat different explanation of why the internal sound gets louder with ear plugs.

QuoteQ: Why is it that if I hum… "mmmmm"… and close off my ear, with the palm of my hand, the sound seems to move to that ear and become much louder?

A: To explain this, let me tell you how sound reaches the ear. The sound you utter conducts through 2 pathways- air and bone .

Bone conduction is when the you tap on your head and you actually hear the tap. Since the sound “hmmmmm” utilizes the nasal cavity effectively, the facial bones conduct the sound and the sound reaches the middle ear, your eardrums vibrate and you hear it.

Now when you close the ear and say “hmmmmmm”, you actually trap the sound waves inside the outer ear, amplifying them . The sound waves hit the eardrum and now you hear the hum louder in the blocked ear as compared to the other.

When I've previously brought up the problem of internal sound and ear plugs, commenters insisted it was all my imagination. 

Not me Rob. Ear plugs are for the birds. Except in rock band. When you've got in ears. And the mix is good.

Not me Rob. Ear plugs are for the birds. Except in rock band. When you've got in ears. And the mix is good.